I came across this article a while back about a guy who has created a contraption that can turn stale beer and other sugar-containing substances into ethanol. It reminded me of the Professor’s garbage-powered DeLorean from Back to the Future but not nearly as cool.

The inventor hopes to sell his “E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler” home ethanol system to consumers by the end of the year for around $10k. While I am all for finding alternatives to oil, the price of beer is still higher than gas (barely) so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to use beer to make fuel. Plus, I would rather pour beer into my gob than into my car.

Then I read that Coors is donating ethanol made from “beer waste” to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Now that makes sense. While I did not realize that so much “waste” beer was produced (3 million gallons per year from Coors alone), the economies of scale make recycling it into something usable more feasible. Apparently Coors has been creating fuel from beer for a long time so this is not a new idea. I wonder if other breweries are doing this?